All posts tagged ‘Indiana Jones’

In the course of about an hour, you can be squashed by moving walls, burn in a lava pit, be thrown over the edge of a waterfall, fall through a rickety bridge into a bottomless chasm, or get crushed by a boulder. Oh, or you might escape the ancient Mayan temple with riches untold. But it’s not likely.

That’s the gist of The Adventurers: The Temple of Chac, an intense treasure-hunting board game from Alderac Entertainment Group released last fall. For 2 to 6 players, ages ten and up, The Adventurers takes about 45 minutes to play and is an excellent press-your-luck game. The board is reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie (or a Tomb Raider game), and the various booby traps are all action-movie tropes that most people are familiar with. There are piles of treasure cards, five dice, a big (plastic) boulder, walls, rickety bridge, cardboard tiles for the lava pit room, and twelve little figurines representing the various characters you can play.

The artwork is excellent, from the details on the board to the various treasure cards to the figurines (sculpted by Juan Navarro Perez based on character illustrations by Édouard Guiton), and help put you in the right frame of mind. I should note that the female characters are from the Lara Croft school of adventure heroines, so you may get some giggles and/or gawking from your players.

The team of adventurers enters the temple and must make its way through various sections of the temple, with a few choices to make. First, you go through the room with the crushing walls, where you can grab some treasure and also study the glyphs which identify the booby traps in the lava pit. Then, you can either take your chances going across the lava pit, or take the long way around, hoping you stay ahead of the boulder. Finally, on the last stretch, there are three options: the rushing waters of the river, the rickety bridge, or the longest path which also holds the most valuable treasure—if you can pick the lock in time. Whatever path you choose, be sure to get out of the temple before the boulder comes crashing down, sealing off the temple forever!

Starting setup: time to enter the temple! Photo: Jonathan Liu

The characters each have a special ability (lock-picking, speed, stamina, etc.) but each player can only use their ability once in the entire game. It seems like a huge restriction, but then it also means that nobody has that much of an advantage over anyone else. Knowing when to use your ability is more important than which ability you end up with.

What matters more is your Load Level, and this is common across all the characters: the more treasure cards you’re holding, the higher your Load Level, and the fewer moves you’ll have. At the start of each round, one player rolls all five dice. You get one action for each die that is equal to or higher than your load level. For example, Bill Baker is carrying 5 treasure cards, which gives him a Load Level of 3, and Nicole Lagger has only two treasure cards, giving her a Load Level of 2. (There’s a handy chart on the character cards to figure out your Load Level.) The dice are rolled: 1, 2, 2, 3, 5. Bill gets only two actions, and Nicole gets four. In a game where a single action can make the difference between escaping or getting steamrolled by the boulder, you want to be careful about carrying too much. Before the dice are rolled each round, all the players have a chance to jettison some treasure cards to lower their Load Level, so it’s important to find a balance. Get a bunch of treasure early on and you can use all your actions to run for the exit, but you’ll be running more slowly. Get a head start by running ahead, and you may find yourself safe but without any treasures.

It takes a little while to understand how each part of the temple works. When I teach the game, I usually just give them one piece at a time, explaining how each booby trap works once they’ve arrived in the appropriate room. Otherwise, it gets a little overwhelming and your players will get bored listening to all the details (plus they won’t remember them by the time they reach the waterfall anyway). However, once you’ve gotten started, the game isn’t too difficult to pick up, and the mechanics of each trap are quite ingenious in design. The crushing walls move based on a deck of cards; the boulder gradually picks up speed as the game progresses; the lava pit tiles are a tricky memory game. Picking a lock for the high-value treasures is a little like playing Yahtzee; escaping the waterfall is easier if you have less treasure, but you can also dump treasure cards if you’re in danger of going over; the rickety bridge gets more and more risky as planks crumble away.

The only big downside is this: if you die early in the game, you get one chance to respawn in the lava pit room after the boulder has hit a certain spot. So far nobody who’s had to respawn has come close to winning—and it’s even been difficult for them to beat the boulder to the exit. While I do think that taking away the risk of dying would ruin the game, it’s always a downer to know that there’s no way for you to win but you still have to sit there and go through the motions. I don’t know if it would be more merciful just to eliminate a player entirely—at least then they could go play something else.

My one other concern is with the lava pit. Because of the way the two-sided tiles work, I imagine that it’s possible after enough plays to memorize the combinations of Mayan numerals on one side and the glyphs on the other, in which case you could figure out the booby-traps without using actions to inspect the glyphs. Of course, you’d have to make a concerted effort to do so, but that would give experienced players an unfair advantage. So far I don’t think anyone in my gaming group is even close to this (including myself, and I’ve played the most times) but it’s a possibility.

Finally, for those who want to spend a little extra for appearances, you can actually get painted figurines instead of the plain grey plastic ones that you see in the photos I took. Savage Tales has a thorough examination of the painted set (which look really cool) but I’m not the sort who would spend an extra twenty or thirty bucks just for an appearance upgrade.

I’ve played The Adventurers several times now, and it’s a fun game whether you have a couple players or a full house. (A six-player game can be especially tense, since there are so many people collecting the treasure cards.) I haven’t managed to win yet, and twice I got crushed by the boulder on the last space before the exit. But even then, I had a fantastic time and was glad I’d played it. Oh, and there are rumors of a sequel coming up, so I’ll be keeping my ears perked for more news about that in the future.

Billy: So, you just raise the sword up and bam! He-Man.
Adam: Yep.
Billy: I guess that’s okay. I just say the magic word and I transform.
Adam: That’s cool, but you’re a scrawny kid. At least I’m already ripped. Really, all the sword does is change my demeanor and I lose my shirt.
Billy: I get a cool super suit and chest hair.
Adam: Oooh. Chest hair. Tough guy. Ever transform at the wrong time?
Billy: Once, when I was kissing this girl I liked, I yelled out the word and she screamed like a banshee. I couldn’t turn back quick enough.
Adam: Awkward.
Billy: You read GeekDad this week?
Adam: I forgot. Skeletor was trying to break into the castle again. Had to lay a whupping on him.
Billy: Well, better check out the GeekDad week in review then!

Post of the Week

There is a particular talent one much possess to time after time, post after post, tap into the geek culture like a needle in a vein. Matt Blum possesses that talent, and once again regales us with a truly geeky post that brings a snarky grin to everyone’s faces. This week, he hits us squarely on the geek bone with the Top 10 Unanswered Questions in Geeky Movies. Definitely worthy of post of the week status.

Even the best movies ever made leave unanswered questions in their wake. Some refer to these as “plot holes,” but why not give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt? Maybe they had a perfectly reasonable explanation in mind, and simply… forgot to include it in the movie.

Some movies’ unanswered questions are integral to their plots, as with Citizen Kane‘s famous issue that nobody was around to hear Charles Foster Kane say “Rosebud” as he died. Most of the time the questions are less important than that, but still can affect your enjoyment of the film, for better or worse — yes, some movies are improved, because without unanswered questions to argue about, there would be little to really discuss about the movie. The Transformers movies are prime examples.

So, then, here is GeekDad’s list of the ten best unanswered questions from geeky movies. What do we mean by “best?” Well, these are ones that are fun to talk about, but that aren’t so significant as to seriously detract from the movie’s quality.

Image copyright Fox, used under fair use

10. Independence Day: The computer virus - This movie has so many unanswered questions that one is forced to conclude that most, if not all, really are just plot holes after all. But then there’s the computer virus that Jeff Goldblum uploads into the alien mothership, that is ultimately what allows the humans to defeat the invaders. Ask any software developer, and they will tell you that it is ridiculously hard to write a virus on a PC that works on a Mac, or vice-versa, and those are two computer systems that were designed and built by human beings. The likelihood of being able to successfully write a virus on a human-built computer of any sort that would affect a computer built by telepathic aliens is infinitesimal. Of course, this is an alien species that has managed to travel in huge ships across vast distances but has never invented a clock (hence the countdown timer they use before initiating their attack), so who knows what sort of vulnerabilities their computers might have?

9. Raiders of the Lost Ark: Indy on the U-boat- The Nazis stop the cargo ship and take the Ark and Marion to their submarine. The crewman tells the captain he can’t find Indy, but then notices that Indy has, of course, swum over to the sub and is climbing onto it. There’s stirring music, Indy waves at the crewmen, he climbs up onto the conning tower, he looks around for a second, and then… the movie cuts to the interior of the sub, where it gets underway, and then we see the red line moving across the map. So how, exactly, does Indy survive this journey? He has no special equipment, can’t get into the sub (the hatches have already been closed, since they’re about to get underway), and it’s about to, y’know, go under the water, in that way subs do. Now, I remember reading once that they scripted (and possibly even filmed) a scene where Indy ties himself to the periscope with his whip. This is, of course, patently ridiculous, since it requires that the sub go no lower than periscope depth on the whole trip and, even if that happened, he’d still probably die. But Indy does tons of things that should get him killed, so we’d have believed that if they’d shown it. But they didn’t.

8. Back to the Future: Marty’s parents’ bad memory – Even though Marty is only in 1955 for a week, he plays a pretty pivotal role in his future parents’ lives. It stands to reason, then, that they would remember him pretty well, don’t you think? Now, I’m not George McFly, but most men would probably have a few questions if one of their children grew up to look exactly like a friend from high school that their wife dated briefly.

Image copyright CBS Studios, used under fair use

7. Star Trek (the 2009 movie): Old Spock biding his time – Kirk gets marooned on the ice planet by Young Spock, and Old Spock saves his life. Then Old Spock tells Kirk that there’s a Starfleet outpost nearby, and they trudge through the snow to get there. Now, Old Spock was marooned there a while before by Nero, and he knew that Nero was going to try to destroy Vulcan. So why didn’t he seek out this Starfleet outpost he knew about until after Kirk arrived? Don’t you think that maybe it would’ve been a smart idea to warn Starfleet that someone was about to try to destroy Vulcan, and, oh, by the way, he’s from the future?

6. Spider-Man 2: Doctor Octavius’s arms – OK, so Octavius had to invent these heat- and magnet-proof metal arms, controlled by sophisticated AI, that attach directly to a human body and interface directly with the brain. So why, exactly, does he need Harry Osborn to finance his big fusion experiment? Is there any doubt that the technology behind these arms would be worth millions, if not billions, of dollars? He could buy and sell Harry.

Twenty-five years ago today, a lot of twelve-year-olds were officially bummed. Jack Valenti, then president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), announced the creation of a new film rating: PG-13.

Hearts, microwaves, and monkey brains were big motivators for the PG-13 rating in 1984.

The modern film ratings system was instituted in late 1968 after Valenti led the revision of the Production Code—a list of do’s and don’ts that had allowed the MPAA to censor movies since 1922. PG-13 is currently one of five ratings used by the the organization to inform audiences what kinds of content to expect.

The new rating was deemed necessary as tweener movies started increasing their screen violence, without quite rising to the levels of adult content that would garner an R rating—a death knell for summer blockbusters. Two movies, in particular, are considered most responsible: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins.

In the former, Indiana Jones leads Kate Capshaw and Ke Huy Quan around India and into an exotic feast of monkey brains. Throw in some heart-wrenching human sacrifice and occult, and some parents were saying, “I let my kids see what??” Gremlins was a popular teenage horror movie featuring adorable fluffy Mogwai that became sharp-toothed demons if their simple but impractical rules of care were violated. Inevitably, the original creature gets wet (causing him to multiply) and his clones snack after midnight (causing them to go evil). Next thing you know, the devil spawn are launching mean old ladies out of windows and our heroes are using microwaves as weapons.

The creators of those two movies responded to criticism from parents and critics with a suggestion for a new intermediate rating—PG-14. On July 1, 1984, after talking to others in the industry, Valenti announced the PG-13 rating, which required pre-teens to be accompanied by an adult. The World War III movie, Red Dawn—a Patrick Swayze vehicle about a Soviet invasion of Colorado—is considered the first movie a twelve-year-old might want to see to be saddled with the new label.

I was, um, more than twelve when all this first hit the fan. Admittedly, my life would be just a bit happier without seeing someone’s heart ripped out, especially after a main course of monkey brains. Same thing goes for Kate Capshaw screaming her way through the Himalayas.

This past weekend LEGO held a Grand Opening for their new store in the Annapolis Mall. My wife and I took our geekling down for the events, including the construction of an 8 foot tall R2D2. While I was there I snagged a few moments with the LEGO Master Builder in charge of the construction of the R2D2.

Photo By: Brian McLaughlin

This was a fascinating conversation, this chance talk to a person who gets paid to build LEGO models. One of the first things I was curious about was the total number of blocks required to construct R2D2. This, as it turns out, is a closely guarded secret. LEGO likes to use those kinds of numbers for contests where the goal is to guess the number of blocks used to build a particular model. Even when the winner is announced at one of these competitions, the only information given out is that the winner is the closest, the exact number if guarded as long as possible. The giant R2D2 is actually based on a smaller R2D2, who was present for the construction. The builders know the kinds of blocks used to build the smaller model, and then have volunteers at the demonstration build scaled up versions of the blocks out of the smaller blocks. It is a fun and fascinating process to watch.

Another curiosity I had dealt with the design of LEGO models, both the demonstration models and the models available for purchase. I assumed that the Master Builders had access to an amazing LEGO CAD system that they used for designing. This assumption was both true and false. It is true that they have an advanced LEGO CAD system that features all of the blocks ever available in the LEGO line and information on their production status. It is false in that it is generally not used for the design work. Most of the work is still done as more of a LEGO art project and the CAD software is used after the fact to document the final model. The art of this work becomes very apparent when you see something like the life-size Indiana Jones model that was also on display for the Grand Opening. The Master Builder said that the creation of features, such as the hands and the face, were a delicate art project to get all of the detail just right.

Photo By: Brian McLaughlin

After answering the questions I had, the Master Builder set back to his task of constructing the R2D2 model and we headed in the direction of the LEGO store to get ready for the day’s opening. There was already a line forming and we got our place in the first dozen or so spots. Buy the time the store opened, the LEGO team was working with mall security to formalize the long line so as to not disrupt the traffic flow. The line was full of families and it was wonderful to see everyone from the youngest to the oldest excited to have the store in town. After a brief delay to handle a computer glitch (during which the store was good enough to hand out $5-off coupons to the folks standing in line) the floodgates to the store were opened and the LEGO team continued to work crowd control. The team did a great job and there really seemed to be order within the chaos. We grabbed an X-Wing model and a couple other items and made room in the store for others. After we grabbed some lunch and went about some other shopping, we went back by the store and the line was still very long, still filled with families and excited faces.

The opening was a lot of fun and my wife is already thinking about a dedicated LEGO budget. If any of our readers were there, please leave comments about your experiences. Welcome to Annapolis LEGO!

Last month, I was sorting through the mail after work. Amid the plastic windowed envelopes offering lower interest rates on credit cards and thick glossy catalogs touting everything from a ladder to help an arthritic dog climb onto your bed to a $6,000 coyote skin throw rug, I found an item that really grabbed my attention, a Backyard Outdoor Theater System. The combination consisted of a projector/dvd combo, two speakers and a 12′ x 6′ screen.

I thought about it. Lazy summer evenings, sitting back and sipping a cool beverage, while the kids ran around catching fireflies and watching a Hollywood blockbuster on a very big screen. These are the moments when vivid, lifetime memories are made. But then I saw the price tag: $3,499. The dream of outdoor movie watching began to make a hasty retreat.

But before throwing in the towel, I thought I’d explore the idea a little further. What about buying the components on my own, surely there would be some savings there. Sure enough, the catalog listed each component’s maker. So a quick Google search turned up a buy-it-yourself price of $218 for the speakers, $900 for the combo dvd player/projector and $1149 for the collapsible screen. It was still more than two grand. For that price, I could practically take the family to Sundance and watch a week of movies.